Vizio E552VLE 55-Inch Internet TV

The Vizio E552VLE was the least expensive 55-inch TV in our test, but you wouldn't guess that from watching it. At a glance, this Vizio lacks the razor thin design of many other TVs (in fact it's something of a behemoth, in this day and age of super-thin sets), but picture quality is good. A built-in full QWERTY keyboard helps with navigation too, making this TV a good budget choice.

While the Vizio wasn't a standout set, we had few complaints during our performance testing. Scenes in The Dark Knight, which were used to evaluate image quality, looked good but we found the contrast level less striking than that of other sets. Light picture quality in Avatar was impressive, though you might be turned off by the bright, almost overly saturated colors. In terms of system performance and speed, the Vizio frustrated us with a long startup time. Energy consumption was average, but Vizio employs an auto-dimming feature that helps save energy by modulating the brightness of the TV in accordance with light levels in the room.

Though some aspects of the Vizio seem more forward thinking, this set's Smart TV home screen seemed a bit dated compared to other models. Consumer testers didn't have any major complaints, but they rated their experience visiting various sites and using apps like Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu, as average at best. The app layout was functional, and relatively easy to use, but it lacked a certain amount of polish. Built-in WiFi made connecting to wireless painless, and the full keyboard on the back side of the remote control was a big plus when typing. Unfortunately, that also made the remote feel a bit cluttered. We also sometimes had trouble getting the remote to register commands if we weren't sitting directly in front of the set.